Magazine for razor blades



May 14, 1940. KUHNL MAGAZINE FOR RAZOR lBLADES Filed March 29, 1939Patented May 14, 1940 ement Fries MAGAZINE FOR RAZOR. BLADES LeopoldKuhnl, Bridgeport, Conn., assigner to Magazine Repeating Razor Company,New York, N. Y., a corporation oi NeWJersey Application March 29, 1939,Serial No. 264,722

2 Claims.

The invention relates to an improved razor blade magazine of the typeprovided with means for ejecting blades therefrom one by one and as theyejected feeding them to shaving position in a razor head. `It should benoted, however, that the invention is not concerned with the dispositionof a blade after it it is ejected,

and it is immaterial whether or not an ejected i blade is injected intoa razor head.

I'he general nature and purposes of the device will be understood afterexamining thebladelmagezines illustrated and described in United StatesPatent No. 1,969,945 to O. V. Rodrigues, United States Patent No.2,643,046 to Leopold Kuhnl,

`United States Patent No. 2,109,017 t0 O. V.

, Rodrigues, and generally described they comprise a casing, areceptacle` within the casing in which a stach of blades is retained, areciprocable plunge' :for successively ejecting blades i from the stack.through an orifice in the casing,

and means for aligning the magazine with a razor head so that each bladeas it is ejected from the magazine will be properly directed to shavingposition in the razor head.

In blade magazines of this general character it has been frequentlyfound that, as the plunger is retracted, it often exerts suiiicientfrictional eiect on the topinost blade of the stack to drag the bladeback with it, with the result that the plunger cannot be made to engagethe blade for ejecting it into the razor head. This is due to the factthat clearance is provided between the end wall of the receptacle andthe upper wall of the casing in. order to permit the blade engagingplunger to pass to the rear of the stack preparatory to engagement withthe topmost blade for ejecting it. `This clearance may be sufficient topermit not only the plunger but also a blade to pass through it at thesame time, although, as a practical matter, the clearance is preferablyconsiderably less than the thickness of the plunger plus a blade.However, if on retraction of the plunger a bladeis dragged into theclearance,

-the plunger becomes jammed and cannot pick up a blade on its forwardstroke. It is the object of the invention to prevent frictionalengagement oi the plunger from drag- (Cl. 20G-J6) Fig. 2 is a viewsimilar to Fig. 1 but showing the plunger in al partially retractedposition;

Fig. 3 is a view on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing the parts constituting the bladestack receptacle.

Referring to the drawing more in detail, the casing or housing (seeFigs. 2 and 3) comprises a sheet metal structure consisting of the sidewalls il! and ll, the end wall l2, the bottom flanges It and Ul, and thetoplwall l5, the top wall l5 being provided with the slot `IE runningnearly its entire length and Aserving as a guide for the blade-ejectingunit as will presently be described. The casing may be extended to forman aligning finger il i1" the device is to be used for injecting bladesinto a razor head. In such case the razor head would be provided with analigning slot ,of well-known construction, such as is described in thepatents above referred to.

A stack of blades indicated as a` whole by the letter A is contained inan inner receptacle the component parts of which are best shown in Fig.Il. This receptacle is, as I prefer to show it, an open, boxlikestructure, comprising the forward end wall i3, the rear end wall i9, theanges 2li, 2|, 22, 23, and 2i, the flanges 2l and 24 bearing merelyagainst the ends of the edges of the blades and serving with the otherflanges to retain the stack in the receptacle. The greater portions ofthe edges are thus free from contact with the wall of the casing whenthe receptacle is in place therein, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The frontwall Sii of the receptacle is provided with a lug 25 which, when thereceptacle is in the casing, projects into an aperture Z8, the purposebeing to locate the front wall so that there is a denite fixed clearance2l between its upper edge and thetop wall l5 of the casing to permit ofthe ejection of a blade therethrough.

`The rear wall i9 oi the receptacle is of such a height as to allow forclearance between its up* per edge 23 and the top wall of the casing,the purpose being to permit the rearward passage of the blade-ejectingplunger therethrough, as will be presently explained. The receptacle issupported by resting on the anges i3 and i4 of the casing but isresiliently pressed upwardly, the lug Zt pivoting on the walls of theaperture 26, by the construction which I will now describe.

It will be observed that a considerable part of the bottom wall of thereceptacle (see Fig. 4) is largely removed, leaving the rectangularaperture 2li, the aperture 3i?, and the aperture 3i. In other words, thebottom of the receptacle may be described as being composed of thestrips 32 and 33, the end portions 34 and 35, the connecting piece 35and the connecting piece 3l' extending from one side strip to the other.The connecting strip 3B is, it will be noted, dropped slightly below thelevel of the side strips 32 and 33.

The spring 38 serves the dual function of resiliently pressing the stackof blades upwardly so that the top blade a is in line with the ejectionorifice 2l and also of resiliently. biasing the upper edge 28 of therear wall of the receptacle toward the top wall I5 of the casing. Themanner in which it does this may be understood from an examination ofFigs. l and 4. The spring is mounted in cantilever fashion in the bottomof Ythe casing, the connecting piece 36 serving as one fulcrum and theconnecting piece 31 serving as the other fulcrum, and, when there is noload on its free end, this free end extends considerably above the planeconnecting the two end walls. The upturned portion 39 of the springextends into the aperture 3l, this arrangement however being merely toanchor the spring in position. The spring when under tension bearsupwardly on the connecting piece 3i and downwardly on the connectingpiece 36, and the obvious result of depressing the free end of thespring is to cause the portion of the strip 33 in the vicinity of thecantilever mounting to bow out or protrude as illustrated in Fig. 1 and,since the strip 33 rests on the flange I3, to cause the upper edge 2B ofthe rear wall of the receptacle to be resiliently pressed against thetop wall I5 of the casing. As shown, there is also a tendency to thesame effect in the case of the side strip 32, but, as I show theconstruction, the side strip 32 is reinforced by the flange 22 and such'dering does not take place to an appreciable or useful degree. In pointof fact it is not necessary, as I have found that the flexing of onestrip only sufficiently accomplishes my purpose. It is assumed, ofcourse, that in actual constructionthe flexibility of the side strip 33and the tension of the spring are adjusted so that the above describedflexing of the side strip 33 will take place to a suiicient extent toaccomplish the purpose describedthat is to say, the spring must besuiciently strong to overcome the resistance of the strip 33 to iiexing.The material of the receptacle, or at least the material of the strip33, is preferably suliiciently resilient to prevent it from taln'ng aset when flexed by a load on the spring. It will now be clear that thespring 38 serves two purposes--flrst, that of resiliently maintainingthe stack in its most upward position and also that of causing thereceptacle to pivot on the aperture 26 and keep the upper edge 28 of therear end wall of the receptacle bearing resiliently on the upper wall ofthe casing.

The blade-ejecting unit is composed of the plunger til and thethumb-and-fnger piece di to which the plunger is connected by the lug42, and the unitas a whole can be moved from one end of the slot I6 tothe other, the connection between the plunger and the thumb-and-ngerpiece being loose enough to permit free movement.

In Fig. l the plunger is shown at the extreme end of its blade-ejectingstroke with the rear end of the receptacle tipped up by virtue of thetension of the spring 33 and the seating of the strip 33 on` the angeI3, so that the edge 28 of the rear end wall is in contact with theupper top wall l5 of the casing. In practice, this contact extendsthroughout substantially the entire length of the edge 28a1though thepressure of that portion of the edge which is affected by the ilexing ofthe strip 33 is greater than that affected by the flexing of the strip32. As, however, the plunger unit is retracted to the position shown inFig. 2, the plunger forces down the rear end wall 28 against theresilient pressure of the spring 38 and can pass between the edge of therear end wall and the upper wall of the casing without, however, anypossibility of dragging a blade back with it, since the rear end of theblade a abuts against the end wall I9 of the receptacle which forms' apositive stop. To cause the rear end of the plunger to more readilythrow down the rear end of the receptacle, the plunger may be slightlytipped up and chamfered off as shown at 43. To permit the forward end 44of the plunger to more readily pass over the rear end wall of thereceptacle from the full rearward position of the plunger, the tongue 45sloping away and downwardly from the edge 2B of the rear end wall may beprovided. The tip 44 of the plunger will thus ride up on the tongue 45and readily force the receptacle downwardly, being opposed only by thetension of the spring 38. However, it is not necessary that the rearwardmotion of the plunger be sufficient to carry the tip 44 beyond the edge28, it being sufficient if the tip 44 be carried just far enough toclear the topmost blade a., in which event the tongue l5 would becomeunnecessary. i

The receptacle may be locked in place in the casing by means of the lugs46, 46 struck in from the side walls Ill and I I of the casing.

While I have stated that the spring 38 functions not only to resilientlypress the stack of blades upwardly but also to resiliently resistpassage of the plunger over the edge 2B, the statement of the latterfunction is in practice not wholly true since the resilient resistanceto downward pressure on the edge 28 is in part due to the resilience ofthe material of the strip 33. In other words, the spring 38 and the sidestrip 33 constitute a resilient system acting to maintain the edge 28 incontact with the upper wall 0I" the casing and to resiliently resist thepassage of the plunger over the edge 28.

While I have described a certain particular l construction in which myinvention is incorporated, I do not desire to be limited to thisparticular embodiment since many changes and modifications may easily bemade without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as setforth in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A magazine ejector for razor blades comprising a housing, a plungermounted for re-` ciprocation along an inner Wall of the housing forejecting blades contained therein, a bladestack retaining receptacleconned within the housing and resting on the wall thereof that isopposite the plunger, said receptacle including a bottom wall and alsoan end wall of a height to provide clearance between the upper edge ofthe said end wall and the said inner wall, a bladelifting spring mountedas a cantilever on the bottom wall of the receptacle and extendingtoward said inner wall, the spring being in a state of stress such aswill cause the bottom wall of the receptacle to be flexed toward thehousing wall on `which it rests and cause the said end wall of thereceptacle to rise and close said clearance.

2. A magazine ejector for razor blades comprising a housing, a plungermounted for reciprocation along an inner wall of the housing forejectingblades contained therein, a blade stack retaining receptacleenclosed Within the housing, said receptacle comprising an open top`lo'oxlike structure, and a. blade-lifting spring hav- Aing a cantileverconnection With the bottom of the receptacle and adapted to actresiliently on t the bottom of a stack of blades n the receptacle,

